Keynote Speakers
We are excited to announce our keynote speakers for SCF 2024 in Aarhus: Faez Ahmed, Benjamin Dillenburger, Patrick Baudisch, Melina Skouras, Marc Alexa, Maria Larsson.
-
Faez AhmedMITTopic: Rethinking Engineering Design with Generative AI
Abstract: Generative AI is reshaping many industries by offering innovative content creation approaches. While tools like ChatGPT have proven effective in multimedia, their application in engineering faces unique challenges, such as maintaining precision under varying requirements. This talk will explore some of these challenges, with an emphasis on achieving designs that are innovative, feasible, and achieve high functional performance. We will examine case studies across various engineering disciplines, including topology optimization, aerodynamic configurations, mobility systems, and kinematic synthesis. Furthermore, we will explore how precision-focused generative AI can transcend mere mimicking statistical patterns to address performance, constraints, and innovation in engineering. The talk will show examples of AI-drive design copilots for engineering tasks along with covering methods that effectively combine multimodal generative models with engineering optimization and tools, highlighting how this fusion augments the design process. We will conclude by highlighting the broader impact of generative AI in facilitating design democratization and fostering rapid innovation across the engineering sector.
Bio: Prof. Faez Ahmed is the ABS Career Development Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He leads the Design Computation and Digital Engineering (DeCoDE) lab, with a research focus on Artificial Intelligence for engineering design. His recent work addresses the Generative AI-based synthesis of high-performance and novel designs, multi-modal representations, and the collaborative potential between human designers and machines. Prior to his appointment at MIT, Prof. Ahmed was a postdoctoral fellow at Northwestern University and earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland. He has industrial experience in Australia's railway and mining sectors, where he championed data-driven predictive maintenance initiatives. Prof. Ahmed is dedicated to enabling a future where humans and AI design together to solve the world's most pressing challenges. -
Benjamin DillenburgerETHTopic: Building Beyond Form: The Transformative Power of 3D Printing in Construction
Abstract: As cities grow and resources shrink, we need a fundamental shift in how we design and build. This presentation explores the immense potential of large-scale additive manufacturing to revolutionize construction, going beyond the direct translation from form to matter. We'll delve into the seamless combination of computational design, innovative materials, and custom printing tools – the many dimensions of 3D printing. The presentation will focus on binder jetting and material extrusion techniques and the diverse roles they can take in construction. We will present recent advancements that allow additive manufacturing to optimize material usage and minimize waste and environmental impact. Case studies illustrate a paradigm shift from volume to value, pushing the boundaries of architectural expression and performance with intricate, bespoke designs made for a circular economy. Finally, this talk will present a vision of a radically digitalized process from design to fabrication, in which humans and machines co-create architecture together– toward a more resource-friendly and diverse built environment and a digital building culture.
Bio: Benjamin Dillenburger is an architect who explores computational design methods and digital fabrication to broaden the design freedom for architecture and to develop performative building solutions. Recent works include the development of the Tor Alva, a 3D printed tower in a Swiss Alpine Valley, and the design of two full-scale 3D printed rooms for the FRAC Centre, Orleans, and the permanent collection of Centre Pompidou, Paris. Professor Benjamin Dillenburger holds a PhD degree from ETH Zurich and is leading the research group Digital Building Technologies (DBT) at the Institute of Technology in Architecture at ETH Zurich after having taught as an Assistant Professor at the John H. Daniels Faculty of Architecture at the University of Toronto. He is a Principal Investigator of the Swiss National Competence Centre of Research in Digital Fabrication (NCCR DFAB).
Patrick BaudischHPIPatrick Baudisch is a computer science professor and the chair of the Human Computer Interaction Lab at Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam University. While his early research interests revolved around natural user interfaces and interactive devices, his research focus shifted to virtual reality and haptics in the late 2000s and to digital fabrication, such as 3D Printing and Laser cutting in the 2010s. Prior to teaching and researching at Hasso Plattner Institute, Patrick Baudisch was a research scientist at Microsoft Research and Xerox PARC. He has been a member of CHI Academy since 2013, and an ACM distinguished scientist since 2014. He holds a PhD degree in Computer Science from the Department of Computer Science of the Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany.
Melina SkourasInria GrenobleTopic: Designing elastic metamaterials
Abstract: Metamaterials are engineered materials with non-ordinary macro-scale properties that arise from their geometric internal structure. In the last few years, such materials have been increasingly used in the context of the inverse design of elastic objects with custom behaviors. Indeed, by carefully designing the internal structure of the used metamaterials it becomes possible to locally control and program their macro-scale geometric and mechanical properties, and in turn those of the final object. In this talk, I will introduce some challenges that arise when designing elastic metamaterials and using them for practical applications and I will describe our approaches to address them. In particular, I will present our work on the effective exploration of the space of metamaterial properties, the grading of metamaterials with different topologies and the design of metamaterials exhibiting strong nonlinearities such as finite curvature.
Bio: Melina Skouras is a permanent researcher at Inria Grenoble, France, working on physically-based simulation and digital fabrication. Until October 2017, she was a postdoctoral associate at MIT where she worked with Prof. Wojciech Matusik on the computational design of meta-materials. She obtained her PhD in 2014 from the Computer Graphics Laboratory of ETH Zurich, Switzerland, where she collaborated with Disney Research Zurich. Her thesis focused on the development of novel algorithms for the design of custom deformable objects.
Marc AlexaTU BerlinTopic: Integrability Strikes Back - Controlling the Normals of Real Surfaces
Abstract: The appearance of a surface mostly depends on its normals. A number of techniques in computer graphics exploit the possibility to adjust the normals for rendering independent of the actual surface — from simple local shading such as Phong’s to microfacet models or artistic rendering. Affecting the appearance of a real surface through normal control is limited by the fact that the normals need to be integrable. I discuss several approaches that achieve results mimicking what is possible without this limitation.
Bio: Marc Alexa is a Professor in the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Technical University of Berlin and heads the Computer Graphics group. He is interested in the representation, generation, modification, and analysis of shapes. He has been Technical Papers Chair for SIGGRAPH and Editor-in-Chief of ACM Transactions in Graphics, the leading venues in the field. Throughout his career, he received a variety of awards, distinctions, and grants from the European Research Council, Apple Inc., the German Science Foundation, Google, Walt Disney Animation Studios, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, and others.
Maria LarssonThe University of TokyoTopic: Computational Carpentry
Abstract: Digital fabrication has revolutionized manufacturing by bridging the gap between digital design and physical production. This process typically involves a one-way information flow from digital models to physical artifacts. While this approach has been highly effective for uniform materials like plastic and metal, it is not sufficient for non-uniform materials such as solid wood. Recognizing this aspect, this talk will present an approach for leveraging the natural irregularities and organic shapes of wood by establishing additional physical-to-digital information flows. Larsson will discuss specific case studies including creating free-form structures from naturally curved tree branches, developing an interface for designing wooden joinery, creating procedural methods for replicating the appearance of knots, and inferring internal wood textures from external surfaces. Each case study enhances material utilization in digital fabrication.
Bio: Maria Larsson is a Project Assistant Professor supported by RIISE and ACT-X. Her research focuses on generative and inverse modeling of 3D geometries and material textures, subtractive manufacturing, and user interface design. She received a Ph.D. in Information Science and Technology from the University of Tokyo in 2023, advised by Takeo Igarashi, and have presented technical papers at several international conferences including UIST and SIGGRAPH.